When we think of the Welsh
kingdom of Ceredigion, it is usually as those lands existed in the 11th century: ten commotes lying along the west coast of
Wales between the Dyfi and the Teifi rivers. But were those its bounderies back in the 5th century when it became the
eponym of Ceredig ap Cunedda?

Professor John E.
Lloyd observed that in the 6 commotes north of the Aeron valley, the influence of St. Padarn is strong; his base at Llanbadarn
Fawr held wide authority as the mother church of all Northern Ceredigion. But south of the Aeron, one moves into another
region which knows nothing of Padarn but is part of the realm of St Dewi.[1] Most will recognise Dewi as St David, generally
identified as the bishop seated at Menevia in Dyfed. Both holy men claim descent from Ceredig ap Cunedda, although Padarn
was related only via his mother. His father, Petrwn ap Emyr Llydaw, married Gwen ferch Ceredig ap Cunedda[2] and we
may assume it was this marriage which brought Padarn to Ceredigion. The two saints can be charted as:

385 Cunedda

l

415 Ceredig

_________________l____ Emyr Llydaw* 400

l
l l

445 Cedig Draws** 450
Gwen===Petrwn 435

l
l

480 Sant/Sandde
470 St Padarn

l

510 St David/Dewi

*This is
the earliest of the men called Emyr Llydaw, being a great-great grandson of Cynan Meriadog. This Emyr's grandson
is also called Emyr Llydaw in the old pedigrees.

** This generation
is missing from many early pedigrees of St David, but can be found in Bonedd y Saint, 1

We suggest that
the lands first named Ceredigion were those 6 commotes north of the Aeron, and that the 4 commotes south of that river were
then a part of Dyfed.[3] Much historical conjecture is made of an 8th century king of Ceredigion named
Seisyll conquering certain adjacent lands to form a territory called Seisyllwg.[4] We think this was when the lands
south of the Aeron were added to the original kingdom of Ceredigion. The whole may have been called Seisyllwg during
his lifetime, but within a generation all 10 commotes were simply "Ceredigion".[5] It continued to exist as a separate
kingdom until being merged into Deheubarth by Hywel Dda in the 10th century. It's royal family, however, did not
become extinct in the male line until 4 generations later in the second half of the 11th century.

.

Ceredigion had few
natural harbors along its coast, so was generally accessible only overland. Neither the Romans nor the pre-Cunedda occupants
built any notable forts there, nor have remains of any regal-appearing manors of that age been seen. One would expect
that it had been sparsely populated in the days of Ceredig. Later, its geographic features served to protect it from
both Saxon invasions and Danish raiders. Its enemies in the 9th to 11th centuries were primarily its neighbors to the
north and south.

Nothing at all is
known of the reign of Ceredig; by the year 600, only men descended from his son Iusay/Usai are found in the ancient pedigrees. And the
descent of those men from Ceredig is missing two generations. For our charts, we shall assume there were two pairs of
men called "Serwyl/Serguil ap Usai" simply to have a name to fill each generational slot, but the gaps may occur anywhere
between c. 450 and c. 600. Thus:

415 Ceredig ap Cunedda

l

450 Iusay

l

480 Serguil

l

510 Usai

l

540 Serwyl

l

570 Boddw

l

600 Arthfoddw

____________l___________

l
l

630 Arthglwys
630 Eiddon Ddu

l

665
Clydog
(next chart)

l

700 Seisyllt

l

735
Arthen, ob 807

l

765 Dyfnwallon

l

800 Meurig

_____l________

l
l 835

830 Gwgan, ob 872 Angharad===Rhodri Mawr 820

We assume
the family on the left in our chart[6] was the senior branch of the Royal Family, since the obits of both Arthen and Gwgan
cite those men as kings of Ceredigion. The traditional historians of Wales claim that Rhodri Mawr added Ceredigion to
his Gwynedd kingship when Gwgan ap Meurig drowned in 872 with no known sons. We have previously shown that to have been not
only unlikely, but pure medieval conjecture.[7] Instead, we posit the Ceredigion Royal Family continued its rule after
872 through the cousin line descended from Eiddon Ddu[8]:

630 Eiddon Ddu

l

665 Seisyllt

l

695 Llywarch

l

730 Cloddien Frych

l

760
Caradog

l

790 Meurig

l

825 Einion

l

860 Owain

____________l_________________

l l
l

890 Gwriad 890 Teithwalch 895 Meirchion

(next
chart) (later chart) (later chart)

We suspect
that after Gwgan ap Meurig of the senior line died, the kingship was conferred upon Einion ap Meurig of this junior branch,
who was followed by his son, Owain. The eldest son of Owain ap Einion was Gwriad, who held the kingship until about
932.[9] Others have suggested that Hywel Dda of Deheubarth probably added Ceredigion to his kingdom after Gwriad disappeared
from the Athelstan charters witness lists. His obit is not recorded, but Gwriad was survived by sons Anarawd and Gwgan.

Both the male
names Gwriad and Anarawd occur here for the first time in the Ceredigion family, having previously been known

primarily in the Gwynedd family descended from Merfyn Fyrch. This suggests
a marriage between the two families such as posited in this chart:

755
Gwriad, Isle of Man

l

790 Merfyn Frych

_________l_________

l
l

820 Rhodri Mawr
830 Gwriad* Einion 825

l
l l

850 Anarawd
870 daughter====Owain 860

l

890 Gwriad

____________l__________

l
l

920 Anarawd
925 Gwgan

* Most ancient
texts say the Gwriad who was killed in 878 was the brother of Rhodri, not his son as modern historians claim.

If, as we suspect, Hywel Dda
had taken the kingship of Ceredigion about 932, the sons of Gwriad ap Owain would have been sub-teenaged boys. Ten years
later, upon the death of Idwal Foel, Hywel Dda also took over Gwynedd. But when Hywel died in 949, the sons of Idwal
Foel successfully reclaimed Gwynedd as their patrimony. We suspect the sons of Gwriad likewise attempted to reclaim
Ceredigion as their patrimony. The Brut says that Anarawd ap Gwriad was slain in 954 and Gwgan his brother was killed
in 957. It thus would appear that Owain ap Hywel Dda successfully held onto Ceredigion, while the more remote kingdom
of Gwynedd slipped from his grasp.

While the lineage of Gwriad
of Ceredigion became extinct in 957, that royal family survived in the families descended from the younger brothers of Gwriad.
The eldest of those brothers was Teithwalch whose lands lay in the far north of Ceredigion:

890 Teithwalch

l

920 Odwin

l

950 Morfydd[10]====Eunydd ap Pyll 935

l

965 Einion

This family branch ended with
a heiress, who married a man from Meirionydd and carried much land in north Ceredigion to her son, Einion ap Eunydd.
Her grandsons were Peredur Beiswrydd and Peredur Beisgwyn, from whom descended both Gwaithfoed of Meirionydd and Gwaithfoed
of Ceredigion as well as other notable families. There is no indication that Odwin ap Teithwalch contested Owain ap
Hywel Dda for rule in Ceredigion after his first-cousins were slain, perhaps being content with a lordship north of the
Aeron valley.

We now turn to Meirchion,
the youngest brother of Gwriad, who held lands in far south Ceredigion. After the death of Odwin ap Teithwalch, the
family of Meirchion was the last surviving cadet of the old Ceredigion royal family.

895 Meirchion

l

925 Gwgan

l

960 Carwed

l

995 Llywarch Llwyd

l

1030 Morfydd

Again, no males of this
family appear to have contested Owain ap Hywel Dda, or his descendants, for the kingship of Ceredigion. But the
line ended an 11th century heiress. The pedigrees[11]
cite Morfydd as "Morydd, king of Cardigan AD 830" ab Llywarch Llwyd", but we think both the dating and gender are incorrect.
It is our view that she was the daughter of Llywarch Llwyd and that she married a Dyfed man. Men
named Llawr and Assur/Alser descended from her, names found almost exclusively in the Dyfed families descended from Tudwal
Gloff. Thus, we would identify her husband as the c. 1020 Uchdryd ap Aleth ap Llawr ap Aelan ap Alser ap Tudwal, and
make him the ancestor of Llewelyn, Lord of Iscerdin, ap Hoedliw ap Llawr ap Assur ap Dyfnfarch ap Morfydd ferch Llywarch Llwyd.

It was, we suggest, with
this 11th century heiress that the Royal Family descended from Ceredig ap Cunedda became extinct. That family's rule
over Ceredigion, however, likely ended with the earlier death of Gwriad ap Owain c. 932 and certainly ended with the death
of his sons in the decade of the 950's.

NOTES:

[1] J.E. Lloyd "The Story of Ceredigion", 1937, pp 4-8

[2] His pedigree is found in ByS 21 reproduced in Peter Bartrum's
"Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts"

[3] Tombstones have been found in the southmost part of Ceredigion bearing the
Ogham characters of the Geodelic Celts who occupied Dyfed after c. 340AD, suggesting the area was once a part of Dyfed

[4] See "The Legendary Kingdom of Seisyllwg" elsewhere on this site

[5] The Brut obit of Arthen ap Seisyllt in 807 describes him as king of Ceredigion,
not of Seisyllwg

[6] Harleian Ms 3859, 26 cites the pedigree of Gwgan ap Meurig; the marriage
of Angharad to Rhodri Mawr can be found in ABT 6(j)

[7] op cit note 4

[8] Pen. 140, 348 but makes Einion Ddu a son of Ceredig ap Cunedda. Chronological
analysis of the families descended from him point to a birthdate near 630 where we place him in our chart

[9] Kevin Halloran "Welsh Kings at the English Court, 926-958" published in the
June 2011 Welsh History Review; Gwriad was a Welsh king who joined Hywel Dda and Idwal Foel in witnessing royal charters,
the last of which was in 932. Thereafter, Gwriad's name is missing from such witness lists

[10] Pen. 140, 348/9 makes Morfydd ferch Odwin ap Teithwalch the mother of Gwaithfoed
of Ceredigion. But that Gwaithfoed was born c. 1160 in a family paternally descended from Meirion ap Cunedda, and that
Meirionydd family had held lands in northern Ceredigion since the tenth century. We think the citation actually refers
to Gwaithfoed of Meirionydd, a man born c. 1100 to Eunydd ap Cadifor ap Peredur Beiswyrdd ap Einion ap Eunydd ap Pyll ap Sandde.
But Morfydd, we suggest, married the earlier Eunydd ap Pyll (not Eunydd ap Cadifor) and carried her father's Ceredigion lands
to her son Einion 4 generations earlier than the birth of Gwaithfoed

[11] Dale Castle Ms, 26; Pen. 120, 588 cite the pedigree of Llewelyn ap Hoedliw
back to Gwgan ap Meirchion before corruptly continuing with a 5th century Meirchion. The reference to a "king of Ceredigion
anno domini 830" was likely included to show this branch of the family only became the surviving royal line after the death
of Gwgan ap Meurig, he born c. 830